What worked. - You peddled somebody who could form a sentence, looked good in a suit and seemed like a normal, educated man.

What didn't - You peddled a guy who carries water for the people who have, in collusion with banks, the legislature and enough lobbyists to sink a barge, gutted the economy, pronounced corporations as gods who live above the law, bashed gay people, told women to get back in the kitchen and generally told everybody who isn't already rich as Roosevelt they are moochers, whiners, welfare queens and are probably sitting on their ass with a bag of Doritos, waiting for a handout.

Other than that, it was a brilliant campaign.

Oh, and after hundreds of years of black Americans only now emerging from the status of slave class, if you actually thought they were gonna vote for some ivy league, lily white twat who's had a hand in dismantling companies for profit and looks like every lantern jawed prat who looked down their nose at them in a job interview, you're not only out of touch, you're clinically deluded.

bunner:What worked. - You peddled somebody who could form a sentence, looked good in a suit and seemed like a normal, educated man.

What didn't - You peddled a guy who carries water for the people who have, in collusion with banks, the legislature and enough lobbyists to sink a barge, gutted the economy, pronounced corporations as gods who live above the law, bashed gay people, told women to get back in the kitchen and generally told everybody who isn't already rich as Roosevelt they are moochers, whiners, welfare queens and are probably sitting on their ass with a bag of Doritos, waiting for a handout.

Other than that, it was a brilliant campaign.

Oh, and after hundreds of years of black Americans only now emerging from the status of slave class, if you actually thought they were gonna vote for some ivy league, lily white twat who's had a hand in dismantling companies for profit and looks like every lantern jawed prat who looked down their nose at them in a job interview, you're not only out of touch, you're clinically deluded.

I, too, thought what worked could be summarized by the following sentence: not a whole lot.

Here's what irks me: When I screw up (which is damn near all the time), I own it and take measures not to repeat it. I'm not sure, but I think this is the "personal responsibility" these junkyard dogs have been barking at me for years.

Republicans, on the other hand, blame everyone else for their own failures. After all, it can't possibly have been their fault, right? Well, in my book that makes you a child. Say what you will about my politics, but at least I own my mistakes. If I didn't think I'd annoy the smartphone Farkers I'd post a wall 'o text admitting all the times I've farked up.

Because I have, son. Yes I have.

Lately there have been a few "outliers" (Jindal surprised me the most) trying to constructively criticize the party. Except none of that will come to pass. We're going to witness more doubling down on stupid until the GOP renders itself irrelevant. Look, assholes, your base is eventually going to die. Literally. Maybe it's time you swam towards the center before the entire nation writes you off.

What worked - Convincing the Teatards that they are Mainstream.What didn't work - Banking on the Teatards vote to be enough to carry the Presidency for the GOP.

2014 is going to be a great indicator as to whether the leadership in the GOP got the message from 2012. If they continue to court the far-right Tea Party types, they will continue to lose in the mid-terms, and there is likely no hope of them reforming into a sane and effectual political party for 2016 and beyond. But if in 2014 the GOP disavows the Teatards, lets them split off to their own far-right party while the Republicans move back towards the center, then... the GOP will lose ground in the midterms to the Dems. But they will regain the soul of the party, and actually have a chance of winning in 2016 and beyond.

I think taking a single quote of your opponent blatantly out of context then building an entire night of your convention around that deception is a really, really good idea that no one will ever see through.

If the options are: democrats raising taxes alone or the republicans making a deal with democrats that involves raising taxes, let democrats raise taxes alone. Republicans are the party of low taxes and economic freedom. What do we have left if we compromise that core value?If people think our current economic woes are the result of too-low taxes, they will see the truth. If republicans think the economy will get worse when taxes are raised, then don't share in the blame. Let the blame fall solely on democrats.

Nailed it. And thus, their entire problem. Just like the fake Obama they ran against, they are deluded into believing that if they just couched their message of bigotry and class warfare in a more palatable "message," everyone would flock to their party. They are incapable of understanding that most of America has completely jogged past their outdated view of the world. Lipstick on a pig and all that.

bunner:What worked. - You peddled somebody who could form a sentence, looked good in a suit and seemed like a normal, educated man.

Well, "normal." He was hilariously unlikeable and out of touch, to the point where he couldn't name doughnuts, had a ballet-dancing horse in the Olympics, refused to talk to the press, insulted foreign allies and even people who'd baked cookies for him, paid half the tax rate of most Americans and still whined about it being too high, flip-flopped and refused to disclose his stance on every policy - including his own previous policies - and thought binders full of women was a reasonable response to gutting pay equity laws.

If the options are: democrats raising taxes alone or the republicans making a deal with democrats that involves raising taxes, let democrats raise taxes alone. Republicans are the party of low taxes and economic freedom. What do we have left if we compromise that core value?If people think our current economic woes are the result of too-low taxes, they will see the truth. If republicans think the economy will get worse when taxes are raised, then don't share in the blame. Let the blame fall solely on democrats.

You realize that the very first thing the DNC will do after the tax cuts expire is propose tax cuts for the poor and middle class? Honestly, you realize that right?

what didn't work? ye gods, I'd be here all day long...everything from zero ground game to some wacky ideas about how to motivate the troops. Then there was Romney's contempt of most voters, his background, his failure to release his tax records, his time at Bain capital...that list goes on and on as well. But the real problem was the GOP's ideology. regular voters aren't as open to the idea of a theocratic government in this country. sure, they might believe in god (in some form) but they don't want to write laws based on religious belief, nor do people trust that religious based laws are any sort of basis for how to organize a society. nobody wants to live in a theocracy, and that's a big factor in voters rejecting the Republicans.

As an aside, a lot of Republicans spent too much time in the echo chamber. see, in that place you can say all kinds of pro-rape comments and nobody so much as blinks an eye. out in the real world tho, if you tell women that rape babies are a gift and that they should be happy to have one....well, they're not going to think very highly of you after that. Don't believe your own press releases and learn to look outside the echo chamber. yes, it's cold out here and sure, there are people who don't believe in the same things the GOP does...but if you want to stay in office, you are going to have to occasionally made deals with those people and learn to coexist with them AND their strange, non-GOP ideas.

which brings me to my last point: the Republican party MUST stop seeing 'compromise' as weakness. no, you will not get everything you want. sometimes you'll only get 50% of what you want...but that's ok, because that's how democracy works. you get a little of what you want, the other guy gets some of what he wants...and life goes on. it's how you build a functional government. so learn to make deals (actual deals, not 'close the doors and lock everyone out so we can screw over everyone we don't like in lame duck session' kinda deals) and play nice with the other kids on the playground. also - stop taking ideological positions that refuse to compromise. you aren't Rorschach, this isn't a movie and you guys aren't heroes. stop believing that yer all John Galt.

There was literally nothing they did the entire campaign that was a good move. At best they had fleeting cleverness (like picking Paul Ryan) that they undermined by being total farkheads (declaring everything Paul Ryan did to be cancer and totally not what the campaign stood for).

FTA: Pointing to Republican's difficulties with Hispanics, Bolger, who is partners with Mitt Romney's 2012 pollster, wrote: "the Republican Party is in danger of becoming the 'Win In Off Years Only Party' unless we make a full-throated improvement with Hispanic voters. And, we have to admit it is us, not them."

If the options are: democrats raising taxes alone or the republicans making a deal with democrats that involves raising taxes, let democrats raise taxes alone. Republicans are the party of low taxes and economic freedom. What do we have left if we compromise that core value?If people think our current economic woes are the result of too-low taxes, they will see the truth. If republicans think the economy will get worse when taxes are raised, then don't share in the blame. Let the blame fall solely on democrats.

You realize that the very first thing the DNC will do after the tax cuts expire is propose tax cuts for the poor and middle class? Honestly, you realize that right?

First order of business on Jan 1, 2013. I'd be surprised if they even managed all sit down before the Democrats are clamoring to be the ones to offer up those tax breaks.

For the GOP, it means this: They have to go along with 'bi-partisan' efforts to offer tax breaks that the President WILL SIGN, or come out against tax breaks. So, either they do what the President wants and is now currently demanding on an hourly basis, or they wear a nice heavy anchor labeled "Voted against Middle Class Tax Cuts"

GOP Options on Jan 1, 2013: Do what the President wants and demands. Or embrace higher taxes for the Middle Class.

sprawl15:There was literally nothing they did the entire campaign that was a good move. At best they had fleeting cleverness (like picking Paul Ryan) that they undermined by being total farkheads (declaring everything Paul Ryan did to be cancer and totally not what the campaign stood for).

What didn't work?You were supposed to send in one decent looking guy to a job interview. He brought along a bunch of frat buddies who started talking about how women liked being raped, and how every other person they saw in the room was a freeloading bum.

If you go to a party and your date pisses in the punch bowl, plants an upperdecker, and sticks his dick in the mashed potatoes, you will BOTH be shown the door.

SlothB77:If the options are: democrats raising taxes alone or the republicans making a deal with democrats that involves raising taxes, let democrats raise taxes alone. Republicans are the party of low taxes and economic freedom. What do we have left if we compromise that core value?If people think our current economic woes are the result of too-low taxes, they will see the truth.

If the options are: democrats raising taxes alone or the republicans making a deal with democrats that involves raising taxes, let democrats raise taxes alone. Republicans are the party of low taxes and economic freedom. What do we have left if we compromise that core value?If people think our current economic woes are the result of too-low taxes, they will see the truth. If republicans think the economy will get worse when taxes are raised, then don't share in the blame. Let the blame fall solely on democrats.

Your post would make sense if Republican policies made sense and if they believed in them. You do, because you're stupid. The people who own you, however, know that it's a house of cards and bullshiat.

bunner:What worked. - You peddled somebody who could form a sentence, looked good in a suit and seemed like a normal, educated man.

Few people thought Romney was "normal", IMHO. Maybe it's the odd Mormonistic goodie two shoes Flanders effect or his actual personality or him trying to twist himself in a pretzel trying to please both moderates and the loonie tunes right wing, but he came off as a weird, stiff robot.

qorkfiend:sprawl15: There was literally nothing they did the entire campaign that was a good move. At best they had fleeting cleverness (like picking Paul Ryan) that they undermined by being total farkheads (declaring everything Paul Ryan did to be cancer and totally not what the campaign stood for).

There was one thing: Mitt Romney's first debate prep.

No, not even then. It wasn't that Romney did well, he did just as 'well' in the second and third debates in terms of his own performance. The reason Obama lost was that he just kind of laid there and frowned through it rather than addressing the nonsense.

sprawl15:There was literally nothing they did the entire campaign that was a good move. At best they had fleeting cleverness (like picking Paul Ryan) that they undermined by being total farkheads (declaring everything Paul Ryan did to be cancer and totally not what the campaign stood for).

Nominating the guy known for his record as governor of Massachusetts and having him run against himself wasn't a good idea either.

What worked: Everything.What didn't: We didn't bank on ACORN stealing the election.

The GOP won the demographics that "mattered", right? They won the older crowd, the richer crowd, the whiter crowd, and the manlier crowd. They didn't win among "takers", and didn't want to. They didn't win among nonwhite religious conservatives, and didn't try to. They didn't win among the median-wage crowd, and didn't think they needed to.

sprawl15:There was literally nothing they did the entire campaign that was a good move. At best they had fleeting cleverness (like picking Paul Ryan) that they undermined by being total farkheads (declaring everything Paul Ryan did to be cancer and totally not what the campaign stood for).

sprawl15:Duke Phillips' Singing Bears: If a sewer main exploded all over you, you'd have no choice but to stand their dumbfounded while you were covered in gallons of sh*t, too.

It wasn't an explosion of feces, it was a persistent waterfall. You have no excuse for getting out of the way of a fountain of ass when it's spraying for more than an hour.

But surely you can see how the initial explosion of poop can be so blinding and surprising that you're just flailing around in a neverending torrent of the stuff, trying to wipe it out of your eyes and running around blind and stumbling knee deep in crap while the asshole just keeps spewing and spewing and spewing.

Duke Phillips' Singing Bears:But surely you can see how the initial explosion of poop can be so blinding and surprising that you're just flailing around in a neverending torrent of the stuff, trying to wipe it out of your eyes and running around blind and stumbling knee deep in crap while the asshole just keeps spewing and spewing and spewing.

No. I can't imagine being so shocked by something that I would just wallow in an ever growing lake of shiat rather than get up and run away.